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The ice cracks as NeZha splits it apart with sharp lotus petals and Wukong quickly summons his cloud, launching off, wincing at the snow that blasts into his face but continues never the less “I’ll give you two options” Wukong faintly hears that echo throughout the clearing of the mountain he knows so painfully well, almost missing the way that Mk's form collapses “Option A, I take the samadhi fire, you do exactly what I say and I don’t have to do anything you’ll regret” The wind whistles against his ears in a almost painful way. “Or… Option B” He hears Mei yell out. “I cut you all down. Starting with the girl.” “WAIT! Don’t do this!” He heard Tang yell, trying to post pone anything that might happen “Tang. Do what I’m telling you to do! Your friend’s life depends on it. Finish. The ritual.” He hears the ice cracking, as if almost a show to Macaques serious. “Alright! You win…” No… NO! Wukong tries to speed up. He hears Mei crying out. Gold erupts around the mountain he’s approaching and he see’s one of the rings explode in red.
Mei twists her head to look at the second one as it lights on fire, eyes widening. There are flashes of red, of burning flames and purple sparks, she see’s herself and almost briefly, she thinks it flashes to Macaque… What…? “No! Wait! I-“ Mei tries. Squirming and gritting her teeth as gold blasts through the ice that’s holding her. “Yes.” Macaques tone drips with malice.
Wukong launches through the snow “STOP!” He leaps at Macaque and Mei, his cloud disappearing behind him. The last ring lights on fire as Mk struggles to get up, eyes widening. Cracking of ice echoes around the ruined structure. Red fire exploding and curling into a ball and an ear-piercing scream echoes through out the mountain. The fire exploding around them. Mk launches at Mei, tumbling her to the side and blocking the fire from her with his body. “Mei! Are you okay?!” Mk shakes her shoulders and she winces, curling in on herself, face twisted into a grimace. “No… This…” He hears Wukong talk faintly. “Mei-“ Another burst of flame hits his back and he winces, curling over Mei who’s still trying to collect herself. Loud cracks of ice and echoes of pain. Heavy breathing. Mk glances over his shoulder, left eye closed. Oh… Oh this is not good. At all.
BurningburningBURNINGBURNINGBURNINGBURNINGBURNINGBURNINGBURNING. Everything is BURNIng him. Everything he touches is burning. The forest is. Flower Fruit Mountain… His home is burning. Claws dig into his head and he screams, high pitched. Everything’s too loud. It’s searing into him. Biting and licking at his skin and fur. Ice pokes and crawls through his very soul. Haunting him at every step. ‘I brought you into this world, I can take you out.’ ‘Get the Samadhi Fire and bring it to me.’ Flashes of pain and an almost paralyzing cold, his nerves are burning.
‘Come back to me, my champion, don’t you want to make me proud? Come back with the fire, bring the fire to me. Come back. ComebackcomebackcomebackCOMEBACK-‘ Her voice is echoing around the clearing. The group can hear it. Everyone can see Macaque breaking more and more. The fire shouldn’t be reacting this extremely, it would only react if the victim was panicked or overly stressed before it happened... It’s consuming him and they don’t know if he is listening to them or not, if he is, then there’s no sign of it. “Wh…” Mei groans faintly, Mk cradles her closer to his chest. Shit. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go… How did this even happen? Wukong grunts, blocking another burst of flame. Wincing. He hears NeZha break the ice that had been keeping Sandy and Pigsy captive. Both of them grunting as they fall back. They can see Macaques outline in red. The whole of his body black, the samadhi fire seemed to break his glamours for the most part so they can see outlines of what’s underneath, the six ears that are pinned against his head, the X mark over his right eye, the longer hair that flows wildly along with his tail, Macaques tail curls around his own waist tightly and they all see him curl into himself “GET BAC-“ Wukong tries. An explosion, Tang darts over to Mk and Mei, summoning a quick blocking spell and Sandy get’s in front of Pigsy and NeZha. Wukong left to fend for himself. “Okay, I hate to interrupt, but CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN, WHAT IS GOING ON?!” Mk yells in panic.
The group glances at Wukong and he swallows. “During the Samadhi Fire ritual, a piece of it got away from me, I don’t know what or how happened, but it was sealed in the closest vessel that could contain it, that had been my loyal companion, the White Horse Dragon, Ao Lie” Wukong mutters “Wait… So wouldn’t that make Mei the forth ring?” Sandy asks slowly “WHAT?!” Mk, Tang and Pigsy yell. Mei stares at him in shock “Exactly! So I don’t… I don’t know how it got to… Him” Wukong gestures to the ball of flames and then looks back at Macaque, who, in general, looks worse then when it started. “You… You planned this, you planned to use me for the samadhi fire?!” Mei connects and then snaps “That’s not- No-!” “You planned this all along, to use me as a vessel, it’s just luck that Macaque got it instead of me-” Mei snarls, green sparks from her eyes “You knew. All along, and you just strung us along?! What are we?! Some kind of plaything to you?! You created this mess! You knew I had this… Thing inside of US-“ Mei and Macaque seem to be in some kind of sync. Wukong falters, taking a step back, the words practically ringing in his ears. “And you hid it from all of us! Why?! What we’re you afraid of?!” Mei and Macaque yell. Macaques voice cuts off with a painful shriek “That you’d have to tear me apart to get your precious samadhi fire?!” Mei hisses. Hands clenching to fists, cracking slightly “That’s not what I’m trying to make you think! I-“ Wukong tries. “They trusted you! All of them.” Crackles and Macaques smoke monster towers over them “How could you lead us into this without a real plan?!” Mei cries out. “DON’T YOU REALIZE YOUR HURTING THE PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT YOU THE MOST?!” Cracks of the cement splitting and rising. Tears fall and burn before they can hit the ground. “He’s out of control!” Tang yells, panicked. “What- What are we supposed to do?!” Tang than adds frantically. “We have to leave. Now!” Pigsy yells. Crackles. The echoes of the Bone Demons voice are back. “I- I- I don’t-“ They hear Macaque try, Wukong looks back at him, seeing just a glimpse of his face, tear ridden, messy and mask utterly broken before he launches off.
Wukong’s chest heaves, golden eyes wide, staring at the red spark in the sky before it’s gone. “What…?” Mk breathes, Wukong’s shocked face turns to a grimace, “Damn it” Wukong whispers, scrubbing his face in frustration. “Care to share your thoughts? Monkey King.” Mei’s voice is sharp. Wukong internally winces “We... Uhm… We all heard the Lady Bone Demons voice, correct?” Wukong says, the group nods in sync, wary, Mk looks extremely uncomfortable. “She kept repeating come back, maybe she was trying to get into his mind? She’s going to find him, and she’s going to find him quickly, especially now that he has the fire” Wukong frowns. The group goes silent “That doesn’t… Sound amazing” Tang winces, Pigsy and Sandy nod with frowns, one more worried than the other. “If you had just told us what the plan was maybe this wouldn’t have happened” Mei grits out “Mei-“ “NO! I know it’s... Mostly Macaques fault for attacking me in the first place and forcing the ritual to start, but it’s Wukong’s fault too! He should have told us the plan in the first place!” She snaps. “I agree with Mei, that plan was utterly fucked Wukong.” Pigsys glaring at Wukong. Mk sweats nervously glancing between his best friend, his mentor and his dad. “Listen, I didn’t mean for this to happen- I didn’t even know it would! …Or could for that matter…” Wukong huffs. “What had your plan been originally anyways?” Sandy asks as calmly as he can “I… had meant to put it in me, so I could control it, to hunt the Bone Demon down myself, destroy her with the fire” Wukong explains. The group stares at him. “…What’s the chance of Macaque not blowing up?” Mei then decides to ask, turning to look at NeZha “…Slim?” NeZha tries awkwardly. “Well, technically, even if you guys don’t like him, we have to go and find him before LBD triggers something in him” Mk says with a determined tone. Wukong falters, shifting a bit nervously at the glare from Mei he get’s “…Fine-” “I’m going with you.” NeZha steps in “Huh?” the group looks at him “I’ve known Macaque for a while. I know him. I can help.” NeZha informs with a guarded face. “Really? Macaque has a friend?” Wukong says suspiciously and NeZha whacks him upside the head with the blunt side of his spear. “Sandy, Pigsy, Mei and I will look for anything else that might help us in this fight after that… Catastrophe” Tang informs with a slight grimace. Wukong nods, brows furrowed.
~
Macaque crashes into a river, far away from everyone, or at least he hopes, writhing uncomfortably, hands snapping up to press at his temples. Trying to ease his pounding head. His body flickers and he grits his now shark-like teeth. Sparks flying from him. Not noticing the grey clouds that start to swirl in the sky. He flinches when a loud bolt of blue thunder crashes to the ground inches away from him “Six Eared Macaque…~” A voice purrs. Fuck. Flame flickers and burns around him again. His body lighting up in red. A chuckle echoes around him. “Awh, poor little monkey. Somehow you’re always failing every little thing you do…” She hums. Macaque squirms slightly, sharp claws scratching at his ears. Steps. She getting closer. Ignoring the bursts of flames that blast around her. Not fazed in the tiniest bit. “Stop.” Macaque grits. The crack of ice echoes around him. Slowly growing around him. “Your worthless. Useless. You can’t even do simple tasks. Such as getting Wukong and Mk for me, you could have done that easily, we both know that, you just chose not to, because your weak.” “Shut up.” “I can help with that issue” The Bone Demons voice is now a calming lull. Like how she sounded in Diyu. Pulling him to the surface. Tempting. “Help me, and I can help you be better.” She murmurs. The cracks of ice fading into the background. Her words a blurred together hum. Ice crawls over his back, trying to trap him, it brings him back out of his thoughts. A wild burst of flames due to his panicked emotions and a distorted scream rips from his throat.
Redson’s head snaps up at the scream that cuts through the sky. Faltering, thinking, before promptly running towards it. Almost falling into the crater that was defiantly not there thirty minutes ago. He can barely make out the outline of Macaque. Breathing heavily. Faintly trembling. Looking completely fucking out of it, there are shards of ice around him, slowly melting, his glamours had faltered and fell, leaving long half white and dark blue, six multicolored ears that flutter wildly and severe scars out to the bare, rushing wind. Redson can just barely see the burn and frostbite marks that now mar his uncle and the faint lines of burnt bandages. His clothes tattered. Gripping his scarf tightly “…Mihou?” Redson calls, curled brows furrowing, worried. Macaque sparks at his voice, almost setting aflame again as his gaze snaps over to Redson out of the corner of his left eye. Eye widening “Redson?” Macaque looks at him fully, confused and somewhat relieved. He looks like an utter mess. He doesn’t know if he’s ever seen Macaque like this before… He doesn’t believe he has. “Are… You okay?” Stupid question Redson. “…I don’t know.” Macaques tone is quiet. Honest. Too honest. Redson hair sparks a bit in unease. “Do you… Want help?” Redson then asks slowly. Macaque hesitates, staring at the ground “…I… Maybe?” Macaque shifts a bit, uncomfortable, face twisting and tail coiling as he shifts to stand. A paw rubbing at his head with a shaky breath. “Yeah, I figured, looks like you might need some fire training” Redson hums nonchalantly when he is almost all but that on the inside. Macaque raises an eyebrow at them, amused slightly. “Ever the comedian” Macaque mumbles, Redson huffs at the slight taunt. It’s familiar between them though. Redson doesn’t get too mad at it, especially considering Macaques state, he knows how Macaque likes to joke around to play off how bad he actually feels. He then decides to offer a black gradient clawed hand towards Macaque. Macaque hesitates visibly again, looking at his face and back at his hand before taking it, getting pulled out of the crater. Redson’s careful to not touch any parts that might be wounded or scarred, but knowing Macaque, he unfortunately knows how scarred Macaques… Whole body is… “Follow” Redson turns, gesturing to come with him, Macaque quietly hums, tail flicking as he does so. Taking a step and faltering, ears pulling back against his head at the echoes of the Bone Demons voice in his head. Swirling in his thoughts. He takes a quiet, shaky breath, before quickly catching up to Redson with slightly trembling limbs and if Redson notices, then he doesn’t point it out.